Magyck
by legionbrony
Summary: A brony is accidentally teleported to Equestria by his genius father's invention. Please read, even if it IS an HiE.
1. Prologue

The boy sat about 6 feet away from his father. He was currently watching a TV show on his I-touch, and trying his best to ignore the frantic, frankly not too paternal presence near him, working on yet another crazy machine. Sometimes he was annoyed with the lack of attention his father paid him, and sometimes he was embarrassed by his geekiness, but sometimes he just felt sorry for him. His inventions he worked so hard on and poured his heart and soul into never seemed to work. It was the saddest thing Brandon could imagine, though he tried not to dwell on it for too long, as it wouldn't do to lose his "cool" image by appearing to actually _care _about his dad.

His father wasn't the only thing threatening to plunge him to the bottom of the popularity charts. He had recently become addicted to a show called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". It was a totally girly-girl show, at least in the eyes of anyone who hadn't watched it, and as much as Brandon loved it, it scared him to death that someone who wasn't very understanding would find out, and he would be socially doomed.

And as it turned out, that was the show he was watching as his father completed the finishing touches on his newest contraption. It was a machine that was supposed to allow you to view any location in the universe, in live time. Supposedly, this could not only render all current forms of communication obsolete, but could also work on a one-way basis, letting astronomers observe distant planets and other celestial bodies as if they were there themselves.

It sounded like science fiction to Brandon, but despite the fact that he sounded like a complete nutter, he knew his father was actually extremely intelligent and believed he knew exactly what he was doing, even if no one else did. His father spent his entire life living in books, on the border between fantasy and reality, which in Brandon's opinion was where people needed to be if they were to be considered a genius. Unfortunately, a side effect of this was that his inventions tended to be outlandish and sometimes outrageous, and he never really spent any time with Brandon except when they worked on one of his projects.

Suddenly there was a bright glow from his father's workspace, and a joyful cry of "It works! My God, it really works!". Brandon looked up from his show to see the screen of the machine flickering random colors. "Son, come over here! I've finally done it! I've finally succeeded!" his father shouted gleefully. Brandon warily approached the machine. He didn't know exactly how the thing worked, but he'd heard his dad talk about the immense amount of power it took, and something about tapping into wormholes. It all sounded fairly dangerous.

The screen started glowing brighter and stopped flickering random colors. It became a pure white light that exploded from the screen, blinding father and son alike. There was a grating whine that Brandon wished desperately would stop, as it felt as though his eardrums were about to explode. He heard his father's shout of terror, and then everything went black.

_Meanwhile in a different dimension..._

She inserted the final piece into her newest invention, and stood back to admire her work. _It's perfect_, she thought with a twinge of pride. _And more importantly, it might even work! _She excitedly stamped her hooves, then regained composure; she had yet to test it.

She flipped several switches, and the machine began to whine. _So far, so good, _she thought. Now all she had to do was provide it with a source of power; in other words, pour her own raw magic into it. Her horn glowed a pale purple as she provided the energy for her creation to do it's job.

It was working perfectly! She couldn't help but feel excited. With access to this kind of knowledge, she would be able to find any cure, study any spell, discover any creature! Which reminded her of the task at hand: powering the machine. She returned her attention to the mechanized wonder, and saw that it was glowing just as it should. She couldn't believe it! Her invention had worked on its _first _test run! She hadn't even needed to tweak it a little bit!

And naturally, this was when things started to get out of hand. For one, the glow on the machine's screen began to glow very brightly...a little too brightly. _That's odd, _thought the equine inventor. _Perhaps I fed it too much magic? _But she knew that wasn't the case, as she had designed the machine herself, and was positive that this was NOT supposed to happen.

She quickly attempted to cut off the flow of power to the machine. However, this had unexpected consequences: the screen flashed even brighter, searing the mare's eyes and forcing her to look away. There was a terrible whining screech that assailed her ears for a few seconds, and then there was an enormous explosion. The last thing she remembered before passing out was that there was another shadowy figure lying in the rubble.


	2. Chapter One

_Well,_ _that would be another of Twi's fancy contraptions, _she thought as smoke rose from the basement windows of the treehouse library that was her friend's home. _I guess I'd better go help her. _She began to walk towards the house when Spike burst out. "Help! Help! Someone heeelp! One of Twilight's inventions blew up...again!"

"Now calm down, I'm sure she's fine," said Applejack. "This happens, what, once a week? Has it _ever _ended with anyone getting hurt?"

"Well, there was that one-"

"Of course not. Now, let's go help Twi out of the rubble. _Again._"

Applejack and Spike made their way downstairs, coughing as the noxious fumes invaded their lungs and throats and made them burn. "Dang," coughed Applejack, "That explosion musta been something real fierce!"

"Yeah, **-cough cough-** it's even **-cough-** making it hard for _me _to breath!" said Spike with difficulty.

The door to the basement was either blown off it's hinges or totally incinerated, it was impossible to tell with visibility so low. In either case, they walked through the doorway and entered into an enormous pool of silky gray smoke. It was like fog, the kind of fog so thick that even grown ponies are afraid to go out, for fear of getting lost. You couldn't see a hoof in front of your face if you put it there.

Applejack cautiously entered the room, thinking that she wished there was some way to clear out the smoke. "I wish there was some way to clear out all this smoke..." she said aloud.

"Hello," said a voice from behind them in the murky smoke. "Looking for me?" Applejack and Spike yelped and ran right into each other. "Relax, guys," said Rainbow Dash. "It's just me, here to save your flanks...again." She flew into the room and created a tornado of rainbow that sucked all the smoke in the room toward it. The tornado funneled the smoke toward the lone open window, and it all exited the room.

"Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" said Spike.

"You're welcome," she said, clearly proud of herself. "I'd like to thank all the little pon-"

"No time for heroic speeches, Rainbow," said Applejack. "We gotta find Twilight!"

"Oh...yeah. Right!" she said, and began to zip around the room in search of the purple-maned pony.

After searching for awhile, Spike shouted, "I found her, I found her!". Rainbow and Applejack quickly came to his side. Sure enough, a purple hoof was sticking out of the rubble that covered the floor, mostly composed of ruined books and machine parts. Applejack and Rainbow pulled her out and brought her upstairs, laying her on her bed.

"What do we do now?" asked Applejack. I bet her lungs are full of that smoke that was down there."

"Maybe you have to give her mouth-to-mouth resusc...rescust...oh, whatever it's called."

Rainbow Dash leaned away from him. "No way! That's gross! She probably has all kinds of dust and..." Rainbow watched as Applejack blew air into Twilight's mouth, then pushed down on her stomach. Sure enough, the air that came out was filled with gray smoke of exactly the same kind that was downstairs.

Twilight began to cough, and more smoke came from her mouth. "Twilight! You're ok!" shouted Spike as he hugged her, getting a bunch of smoke to the face. "Eww, your breath smells terrible!"

"I can't imagine why that would be," said the orchard pony.

Twilight coughed and hacked some more until it seemed that most of the smoke was out of her lungs. "What...what happened? Did my machine work?"

Applejack looked at her with sympathy. "Eh, no, not exactly. It kinda blew up."

"And then we saved you!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "Well, it was mostly me. Applejack and Spike, they were all like, 'What will we do, we can't get anything done in all this smoke', and then I was like, 'Have no fear, Rainbow Dash is-'"

"But I know I saw something else down there! There was something in that room after the explosion!" blurted Twilight.

"Well, yeah, there was a heck of a lot of books and smoke and fancy mechanical doohickeys, if that's what you mean." said Applejack helpfully.

"No, I mean...well, let's go down there and look."

"Whatever you say, Twi." said the orange-coated mare.

"Well, _I'm _done here. I'm not gonna waste time looking through some boring, book-filled basement! See ya!" A rainbow blur exited the room.

"Well, that's Dash for ya. One minute she's bein' helpful, next minute she's bailin' out on the job!" muttered Applejack.

"Come on guys, hurry up!" shouted Twilight from the main floor.

"Coming, Twilight!" responded Spike.

Pony and Dragon raced down the stairs to catch up with the impatient Unicorn. When they got to the basement, Twilight was already limping through the wreckage, books and parts flying all over the place, propelled by her powerful magic. "It was right over here! It might be some sort of proof that my invention worked!" she tossed aside a large switchboard and a dictionary. "It's got to be here some-" Twilight ceased moving abruptly. "What in the name of Celestia...?" she murmured.

For there, even though she didn't know it, lay a creature that had just been teleported over a formerly insurmountable distance by her machine. There lay a creature from another world, another universe, even. There lay a creature that was part of a species that had not known any other form of reasoning, intelligent life besides itself for eons.

There lay Brandon.


	3. Chapter Two

"Oh, Celestia, what is _that?_" gasped Twilight. To be fair, Brandon wasn't looking his best at the moment. He had, after all, been teleported between two alternate universes. His hoodie no longer had a hood, and was in fact completely torn apart. Since he had been wearing the hood, his head had been protected partially from the explosion, but unlike Twilight, he had been at the exact center of the blast. His pants weren't in much better condition, though as a testament to blue jeans they weren't totally destroyed like the hoodie.

"I don't have a clue!" stated Applejack in confusion. "Beats me how it got here, too; I take it you didn't have it down here _before _the explosion?"

"Would I be asking you if I _had?"_ retorted Twilight. "I've _got _to look in my library; I think I've seen this thing before in one of my books!"

_'Course you have, _thought Applejack. "Well Twilight, looks like you've got yourself a new project. Just try not to blow this one up, okay?"

Color rose to the mare's cheeks. "I'll try my hardest, Applejack." she said, smiling.

"Well, I'll be seein' ya'all 'round. Bye!" said Applejack, walking through the door.

"Bye Applejack!" shouted Spike before the door slammed shut.

"Well Spike, I guess it's time to get to work. Now, I'll need to make a checklist of all the books I have to find, and then sort it alphabetically and..."

Spike groaned. It looked like he was in for another night of Obsessive-Compulsive organizing with his host, Twilight Sparkle.

...

Brandon

...

Brandon realized as soon as he came to that there were indeed parts of his body he had previously thought incapable of feeling pain that could, in fact, feel pain. In fact, he was pretty sure that every single inch of his skin was being scrubbed with steel wool at the same time, while his insides were cooked with high-frequency ultraviolet rays. This was probably the worst he'd felt in his life. Probably, because at the moment, most of his memories were returning to him like a Brony returns to hating Ponies. In other words, they weren't coming. He tried to remember how the heck he'd gotten this way, but pretty much the only thing that was coming to mind was a ridiculously bright flash, and then darkness.

Speaking of which, it was pretty dark, wherever he was. He got up and looked around to find himself in a room that didn't look like it got much use. There were bookshelves full of dusty books, and tables piled high with dusty books. Even the floor had encyclopedias and reference material covered in dust. If he had to label this room, he would label it the "dusty book" room. Pretty much the only thing in the room that wasn't full of books was the bed he was lying on, and from the fact that the books around the bed were slightly less dusty and piled slightly higher than the ones in the rest of the room told him that it, too, had probably been used as dusty book storage. Ah well, he'd just have to look for some clue as to how he'd gotten here.

About five dusty sneezes later he realized that there would probably be footprints in all this dust. After looking about for a while, he found some that hadn't been obliterated by his sneezing fit. They weren't what he'd expected, though; they were circular instead of oblong. Either this person was a dual peg-leg, or something very weird was going on, and Brandon intended to get to the bottom of it. He climbed out of bed and, trying to ignore the burns covering his hands and feet and the aches all over his body, limped over to the door.


	4. Chapter Three

Two pairs of yellow hooves touched down outside Twilight's brightly lit library home. A soft, almost inaudible tap at the door. A pause. A defeated sigh. Then Spike opened the door. "...Fluttershy?" he mumbled. He looked like he'd been to the moon and back, with bags under the scaly eyes that he could barely keep open.

"Oh...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to wake you..."

"Wake anypony with that kind of knock? I wouldn't worry too much about that, Fluttershy," said Spike. He scowled. "Anyways, there's no way you could have woken anypony in **this **house up, because apparently we _never sleep!" _He directed the last two words at an exceptionally large mound of books with a purple tail sticking out from behind.

Twilight's head poked around the mountain of reading material. "Oh Spike, you're such a drama dragon. But...I guess you _have _worked long enough tonight...you can go to sleep if you'd like."

"Finally!" Spike yawned. Halfway up the stairs, he almost fell asleep where he was standing, but he managed to drag himself the rest of the way to bed.

"So," began Twilight, putting down her book, "What brings you here at this hour, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, it's nothing...I mean, well, it's not, but your work is much more important..."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Twilight. "Anything that brought you here in the middle of the night _had _to have been important. Just tell me what you need. Is it a book? 'Cause we got plenty of those, being a library and all."

"Well, um...actually, I forgot how to mix up that new super-cure you found, and I was just wondering..."

"Sure thing! I know just where I put that book. Come on, I'll get it for you!"

Twilight got up off her haunches and trotted up the stairs, with Fluttershy following close behind. "It's right over here..." They were just about there when the door to the room Twilight had hastily stashed the odd creature in opened, and they found themselves staring right into his blue eyes.

...

Brandon

...

Brandon opened the door, but where he expected to find more musty library shelves, he found a horse! He was slightly taken aback by the fact that a horse-wait, there were two, and they were...a unicorn and a pegasus? The pegasus scrambled over the edge of the balcony with a whinny and thudded into a stack of books below, while the unicorn took several steps back, looking slightly nervous but confident. He was still busy wondering _are_ _these supposed to exist, and if they are, how did they get in a library?_ when he got another suprise.

"Um...nice...creature?" said the unicorn.

Brandon stared. He was pretty sure horses didn't talk. He couldn't remember much, but he knew for sure that only humans were supposed to talk. He plopped down on the floor, suddenly overwhelmed by dizziness. Here he was, in a place he was pretty sure he didn't recognize, with creatures that he was pretty sure didn't exist, and he was pretty sure - no, _very certain _that one of them just talked, which he was _pretty sure _wasn't supposed to happen.

All in all, he was thought he was in big trouble. All he could remember was his name, and lots of facts, like the fact that _horses don't talk_. He sure hoped this memory loss was temporary, because it wasn't exactly a confidence booster when you had no past experiences to go off.

"I'm not going to hurt you, so don't be afraid..." said the purple unicorn, approaching him carefully. Come to think of it, he didn't think horses were supposed to be purple, either. Suddenly its horn started to glow and he found himself surrounded by a pale purple light, floating back into the "dusty book" room. He flailed and tried to shout, but nothing came out. Huh?

He was placed back on the bed and the door was shut and, this time, locked. He sighed. Well, he supposed he'd just have to wait until they felt like letting him out now. But why couldn't he talk? He tried again, but the only thing that came out was a raspy whisper. Huh. He could tack this to his ever-growing board of mysteries that needed solving. He meandered over to the slightly-less-dusty-than-the-rest-of-the-room bed and lay down on it. Oh, well; he was really, really tired anyways. Maybe it would all come back to him when he woke up. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, not realizing that this was only the beginning of his adventure.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter 4

"I-i-is it g-gone?" whispered Fluttershy from under a mountain of books.

"It's OK, Fluttershy," said Twilight, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "I locked the door this time."

Fluttershy daintily made her way out of her not-too-soft landing spot, wings flapping anxiously. "What was it? I've never seen a creature like that before in my whole life!"

"That's what I've been staying up so late to find out. I thought I'd seen a picture of it before in a book, so I was trying to find that book again. I can't for the love of Celestia remember what it was called, though..."

"Is it this one?" Fluttershy walked over to a book that had been flipped open by her tumble from the walkway above. The picture on the page showed a creature exactly like the one that had just scared their manes off.

"...Um...yeah, it is..." said Twilight, half surprised, half annoyed. How did other ponies always find in one minute what she had been looking for for hours? It was beyond her. She _lived _here, for Celestia's sake!

The book was engulfed in a soft purple glow and levitated up so Twillight could better read it. The page opposite the picture read:

**Humans**

_Humans are creatures supposedly from ancient times, that most research ponies now regard as extinct. According to legend, they were unique in many ways from the other creatures of Equestria. Most were not extraordinarily strong, but their strength lay in their combination of two grasping appendages called "hands", which are where the two front hooves on a pony would be, and their amazing penchant for innovation. Humans were rumored to have learned how to use tools before even Earth Ponies had, marking them as possibly more intelligent than Ponykind, and compensating for their utter lack of magical capabilities, though this theory is not widely held among the researcher community._

_Humans were said to tend toward violence as a species, though there are a few stories that tell of kind humans helping ponies by gifting them with their advanced machinery or helping them build buildings with their legendary knowledge of architecture. Most of these stories are considered to be fiction, as the tools and/or weapons used by the humans would be far more advanced that any historipony could give any race credit for._

_Humans also, according to legend, lived in the Everfree Forest, marking them as dangerous, like most other creatures that make their home there even today. If they could survive in the Everfree Forest, they would have to have been formidable adversaries indeed._

_Instances of Humans attacking villages and burning much of them to the ground, and carrying off everypony in the village, were not uncommon. These villages were usually earth pony, as Pegasi lived in the clouds and Unicorns were magical, and Humans feared magic greatly.). Thus, ponies learned to fear the Everfree forest and everything in it. However, today many brave expeditions into the feared forest have revealed that, even if humans had existed at one point in time, they do not reside in the Everfree forest any longer. There is much debate among researchers about the fate of the Humans; some believe that their bipedal structure (they only walked on two legs, allowing for greater use of their "hands") was not fit for survival, and thus they slowly died off in the harsh environment of the Forest. Other wilder theories, one being that Humans discovered a way to travel over great differences, similar to how unicorns travel over short distances using magic, and left Equestria, and another being that the humans eventually became so good at fighting that they began fighting amongst themselves, and killed _themselves _off, also exist, but these are dismissed as fantastical without any basis in reality._

_Whatever the reason for their disappearance, they are known to have existed because of the odd artifacts that have been found by archeoloponies in the everfree forest, the function of which could not be determined. These artifacts include a two long, narrow, hollow tubes of metal that are stuck together with what appears to be a handle at one end, and several large plates of metal with handles on one side. Unfortunately, none of the artifacts found offer anything of benefit to Ponykind, and as a result most studies still conducted on this ancient race are purely out of curiosity. _

There were sub-chapters and references, which Twilight was dying to read, but first things first. She got Fluttershy her book and hurried her out the door, ignoring her questions about the creature; she didn't want anypony to know about this until the situation was under control. Her brain raced, forming theories about how her invention could have brought one into her house. Had she brought it forward in time? Or had she brought it from a distant land? The biggest question on her mind was why she had never heard of humans before if there was so much research done on them; this worry niggled at the back of her mind constantly. She had to put these questions out of her mind temporarily, however, knowing for now all that mattered was alerting the Princess to the possible danger this Human posed.

...

Brandon

...

Brandon woke from his slumber feeling better physically, but his memory was still fuzzy. He was now certain, after sleeping on it, that Unicorns and Pegasi were creatures of myth. Had he merely hallucinated them? He got up and tried the door. Locked. So that gave some validity to the events he recalled last night, but how could a horse _talk? _It went against everything he knew, and, he guessed, everything he couldn't remember as well.

And then there was the problem of his voice. Why didn't his vocal cords work? Perhaps the flash of light he remembered was an explosion? That seemed like a good explanation, as the heat may have damaged his voice box enough to hinder his speaking. From what he knew, that could heal, but it would take time, and without being able to talk, there was no way for him to...talk to the horses? He was already thinking of their speech as a fact. It made no sense, and yet...he knew what he'd heard. He even remembered how it talked, as if it was trying to calm a potentially dangerous or upset creature: _ "I'm not going to hurt you, so don't be afraid..."._ Clearly it had no idea what he was.

But it spoke his language! The chances of that were astronomically low. How would it know English? ...He forced himself to calm down. He just had to take things as they came and, at least for now, not over-think things too much. That could lead to mental instability; it would be best to just pretend that this was all possible, if not normal, and not question it until he'd learned more.

He lay back down on his bed. He needed his rest; his body still felt like he'd just fallen down 30 flights of stairs. As he drifted off, he couldn't help feeling annoyed at his helplessness. Despite all he knew, he still felt very unsure of everything. This wasn't right, he knew, but he couldn't remember any experiences whatsoever that might _prove _it to him. His irritation faded to apathy as sleep took a hold on him. That night, his dreams were full of talking unicorns and pegasi, and there, they didn't seem unusual at all.


	6. Chapter Five

Unfortunately, the Princess didn't seem to know much about these creatures either.

_Dear Twilight Sparkle,_

_I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I know what you're talking about, but the most I can tell you is that these creatures disappeared just before Luna and I took the throne from Discord. However, you were right to come to me about this. It may be dangerous, so I'll send some guards to assist you until you discover its attitude toward us. Good luck, my faithful student!_

_Sincerely,_

_Princess Celestia_

Twilight had immediately gone back to the book on Humans and read every word, and then found all the references in the book and researched them, too. Everything was very vague on what individual humans were really like; apparently humans didn't come into contact with ponies all that much, even when they **did **exist, and when they did, they left very few ponies behind to tell the tale. As much as she hated to take risks, the only way to determine if this human was one of the "good" ones or one of the "bad" ones was to talk to it, and you couldn't pay her a million bits to do that by herself. So, she set out to find her friends, who she was sure would be happy to help.

_Later..._

Everyone stared. Then, when they were done, they stared some more.

"Uh, Twilight? It...doesn't really look that dangerous..." said Rainbow Dash, a little put out. She had been looking forward to a good beat-down with a monster, but this thing didn't look like it could stand on four hooves, much less two.

"Well, the book said they once destroyed entire towns, so they must be at least a _little _dangerous..." said Twilight doubtfully.

Brandon was passed out on the too-small pony-sized bed, with his legs hanging off the end and his arms draped over the sides. He was snoring like a dragon, and he was still in the clothes from the explosion, so the room smelled of smoke and sweat. Dust whirled and twisted in the small eddies created by the movements of the six friends. The guards Celestia had sent stood stoically outside the room, silent but alert.

"Well, he certainly needs his beauty sleep...just look at him!" exclaimed Rarity, a white unicorn, wrinkling her nose. "He's almost as filthy as this room!"

After everyone had stood there staring for a little longer, Rainbow Dash ran out of patience - not an uncommon occurrence. "All right, that's it! This dude's waking up, 'cause he's got some questions to answer!"

"No, wait!" cried Twilight. "If you wake it up, it might get angry! It's best to let it wake up itself!"

Ignoring her, the impatient pegasus flew over and landed squarely on Brandon's chest with a thud.

...

Brandon

...

Stars danced before Brandon's eyes. He gasped and tried to get air in his lungs, but a heavy weight on his chest refused to let him breathe. Had something fallen on him?

He opened his eyes and almost jumped out of his skin; a cyan pegasus was standing on his stomach, looking at him with not a little annoyance. Panicking, he shoved it off the bed. _Thud. _It exhibited a look of surprise for an instant, then glared at him. He tried to talk, but all that came out was that raspy whisper again.

His attention was brought back to the pegasus when it grabbed his pant leg with it's teeth and shot out the door, dragging him along for the ride. There was a blur of color and some shouting, and then they were clear of the building. Brandon was thankful for that, but unfortunately the ground seemed to be traveling away from him at ridiculous speed and, as he lacked the ability to fly, he was slightly worried about this fact. None of this had actually registered yet, as his sleepy brain was still attempting to catch up with his overloaded ocular receptors.

_...Oh crap. _The penny dropped, and Brandon suddenly realized that he was a mile above the ground with no (safe) way down besides the enraged pegasus dragging him ever higher.

"Ah righ, wahth oor deal? Wa're ooh e'en oing ere?" she inquired testily around the cuff of pant leg. Apparently, she expected him to respond.

Brandon tried to form words, but even if he could have talked, he probably couldn't have thought of anything to say. His head was light and he felt dizzy from the height.

The ever-impatient mare snorted and shook him around a bit. "Ah thed, wha're ooh oing ere?" she growled.

"Rainbow! Stop!" came a voice from far below.

"Bu he-"

"Bring it down here now! That is _not_ the proper way to ask questions!" Twilight fumed.

Rainbow Dash glared at the terrified human as best she could without letting go of his pant leg as she brought him back to earth, none too carefully.

As she landed, everyone gathered around her and Brandon. "What were you thinkin', girl?" Applejack ranted. "Ya coulda hurt 'im, and ya prob'ly scared 'im half to death! After all, the thing can't fly!"

"It's not _my _fault!" protested Rainbow. "He was just lying there, mocking me!"

"Um, actually, he was sleeping...I think...?" suggested Fluttershy.

"Are you okay?" asked a bright pink pony who, similar to Applejack, had no wings or horn. "...Omigosh, I just realized! I should throw a party for you! I mean, I know you're not a pony, but _every_one loves a good party! Ooh, I can't wait for you to meet everyone! There's my pet alligator, Gummy... Are there alligators where you come from? 'Cause we have them here! He's so cute and green and-"

"Pinkie, he's confused enough without your help!" chided Rarity.

Twilight growled in frustration and dragged poor, confused Brandon away as the other ponies argued. Once they were back in the library, she plopped down on the floor and sighed in relief. Only Celestia's guards remained besides them, having been ordered to watch Brandon at all times until it was determined that he posed no threat. Twilight levitated a quill, some ink, and a scroll in front of her from the other side of the room. "All right, now that we have a quiet, commotion-free environment, I would like to ask you a few questions."

All Brandon really understood was:

FlashingColors TalkingAngryPegasus HighintheSky Yelling Blur Thud ScaredhalftoDeath Mock Sleep Party Gummy Alligator Confused FootbeingEaten DoorSlam-

"-ask you a few questions." Twilight grinned at him.

Brandon blinked.


	7. Chapter Six

**Thanks for the reviews, everyone! I really enjoy writing this, so your positive feedback is very encouraging! However, please alert me to any mistakes I may have made so I can fix them; I'm a perfectionist, so if anything is not perfectly perfect, kindly tell me! Thanks once again!**

Twilight's grin faded. "You have no idea what I'm saying, do you?"

Brandon nodded.

The unicorn's eyes widened. "Wait...you _can_ understand me?"

Brandon's head bobbed a yes.

"...Wow! This is AMAZING! How can you understand what I'm saying? Could humans have known our language? Maybe we even spoke the _same _language! I've _got _to take this down!"

The excited equine rushed off to get more paper and ink, giving Brandon a few seconds to ponder a few of the million questions flying through his head, like how she knew he was a human, or how she even knew what humans where, or how they all spoke English, or why it seemed so normal to him that this unicorn loved taking notes.

Twilight came back, an absurdly large pile of paper and inkwells levitating behind her. _She can't possibly expect to use all that, _he reasoned.

"Now, do you know how you got here?"

Brandon's head shook. Twilight's pen scribbled.

"Do you know where you are?"

Head shake. Pen scribble.

"Can you give me a verbal response?"

Shake. Scribble.

"...Wait, you mean you can't talk?"

Nod.

"So humans can't talk?"

Shake.

"Uh, no they can't, or no they can?"

Brandon rolled his eyes and held up two fingers, indicating that it was the second option.

"Two? Oh, the second one; Ok." Her pen scratched furiously, taking down the interesting ways in which humans put their anatomical differences to use. "So why can't you talk? Could you talk before you came here? Is it an injury from the explosion?"

_Aha! So there _was_ an explosion! _thought Brandon. He nodded and pointed to his throat.

"Oh, your vocal cords? I guess that would make sense. Being that close to the explosion and all, you're lucky you didn't suffer worse! But don't worry," she said, seeing the look of dread on the boy's face, "I'll fix it in a jiffy! Now, where was that book..." Her horn glowed and books began to fly off the shelves, spewing out the occasional dust cloud when she looked at one that had lain unused for a while. The now-forgotten pile of paper and ink was soon overwhelmed by the growing heap of reading material.

"Hmm...V...vocabulary...vocal arts...vocal spells!" she levitated a book over to the table triumphantly. After reading for several minutes and mumbling to herself, she turned to Brandon and closed her eyes in concentration. Her horn sparked and glowed brighter, and a beam of purple leapt from it to Brandon's throat. There was an intense tickling sensation, and as soon as she was finished, he started coughing violently and fell to the floor. Twilight backed away. _Oh, no! _she thought. _Did I do something wrong? What if he can't breath?_

To the purple pony's relief, he finished coughing and sat up. He felt his throat. And then he spoke.

"Thanks."

Twilight stared. And then she started cracking up.

Brandon sounded like he had just inhaled a _ton _of helium. It _did_ sound pretty ridiculous. However, he did not find it as amusing as Twilight. "Hey, it's not _my_ fault! You did the magic!"

Unfortunately, his second instance of speech was no less funny than his first; Twilight was now incapable of talking, much less performing magic. She was laughing so hard that _she _was now having trouble breathing. Brandon decided he had better refrain from speaking until Twilight had regained her composure.

Twilight snorted a few times, let out some final giggles, and then took a deep breath. "Well, it would appear that I-". She burst into giggles once more. After recovering (much more quickly this time), she started over: "...It...it would appear that I got the pitch..._hee hee_...of your voice wrong. I'll...I'll fix that..." she said, barely able to suppress her laughter. She cast the spell once more.

"Whew...that's much better," said Brandon, grateful to have his regular voice once more.

"No problem," said the mare. She snickered. "And don't worry, I'll keep quiet about this little incident if you will. I would be pretty embarrassed if everypony heard that I messed up a simple voice-adjustment spell, and...well...I doubt you would ever live that kind of thing down if Rainbow Dash ever heard.

"Don't worry, I have no intention of telling _anyone _about this." he smiled. "So...your name is Twilight? I'm Brandon."

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, at your service!". She curtsied, as well as a pony can, anyways.

"Element of...Magic?"

Twilight then remembered that this human didn't know anything about her world. "Oh, right...My friends and I represent the six elements-"

Her lecture was interrupted by a sharp rapping on the door. They looked at each other, eyes wide. The new friends were suddenly reminded that they had left everypony else outside arguing.


	8. Chapter Seven

**This is a shorter chapter, but it introduces all of the Mane Six to Brandon and also gets him a much-needed new set of clothes.**

**Thank you all for your reviews! I probably won't write super fast (Perhaps one longer chapter per week), but I hope to finish this story! Now, all I need is a conflict in the plot... :)**

"Twilight? You in there?" Applejack's muffled but distinctive voice could be heard through the door. "We're mighty sorry 'bout all that arguin' back there...Did we upset ya'all? Are you all right?"

"We're fine, Applejack. Come in," said Twilight in a friendly tone. Applejack opened the door and walked in, her hooves clopping on the wood floor. The rest of the Mane Six followed, rather abashed.

The farm pony led the group of friends over to Twilight. "We all wanted to apologize for all the trouble we've caused. We're awful sorry, Twi."

Rarity shouldered Rainbow Dash forward. The colorful pegasus glared back for a moment, then turned to Twilight apologetically. "Sorry, Twilight. I shouldn't have dragged your human out of your library without asking...next time-"

"I'm not_ her_ human!" spluttered Brandon indignantly. Everypony looked at him, shocked, except Twilight. Fluttershy quickly hid behind Applejack and Rarity.

"Uh...you mean you...can _talk?_" stuttered Applejack. She stared for a moment, blinked, then shook her head. "Uh...sorry 'bout that, uh..." she stopped.

"Everypony, I think a formal introduction is in order. This is Brandon," Twilight began. "Brandon, this is Applejack," she said, directing his attention to the pony with the western accent, "Rarity," she pointed her hoof at a beautiful pony with a white coat, who was busy trying to get a yellow pegasus – Fluttershy, as Twilight called her – out from behind her. "That's Pinkie Pie..." said Twilight, frowning a little as the pony she motioned to began to repeat the word 'bibliobibulus' over and over. "She's...well, she's Pinky Pie, I guess." She looked suspiciously at the prancing Pinkie.

Applejack came over. "Looks like Pink's got a new favorite word," she said. "Twilight, you're the eggh- Uh, I mean, you're smart; what's that mean?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, deciding that she wasn't being made fun of. "Uh...nothing. She, uh...probably made it up."

"Well, it certainly sounds interesting," said Rarity, who had succeeded in dragging Fluttershy over to Brandon. "Say hello, Fluttershy, dear," she said.

"Oh...um...hi." whispered the overly shy pegasus.

"Hi. So, you're Fluttershy?" he said, even though Twilight and Rarity had both already said her name.

"...um...yes..." she mumbled, trying to hide behind her hooves and then, as that proved ineffective, drawing out her wings and covering herself with them. "...eep!..."

Brandon frowned. Was he that scary? Twilight saw his expression.

"Don't worry, it's not you, it's just...well, meeting new people isn't Fluttershy's strong suit." A smiling nod from the rest of the group confirmed this.

Rainbow Dash landed between Brandon and Fluttershy, distracting Rarity and allowing Fluttershy to make her escape. Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Hey! Sorry about that whole, you know, dragging you into the sky thing, but I didn't know you were _friendly_!" Rainbow said. "Anyhow, I'm Rainbow Dash, the coolest pony around, _and _the best flyer in all Equestria!" She extended her wings proudly.

_Well, how modest, _thought Brandon. "Nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash."

Throughout this entire meet-and-greet, Rarity had been eyeing Brandon with distaste. Now, she stepped forward. "Oh, _finally, _I thought it would _never _end! Now, come with me, darling, and I'll get you sized for something much less..." she mulled over her word choice before deciding that his current wardrobe was 'filthy', which, as Brandon looked down, he realized was putting it nicely. He followed Rarity out the door, leaving his inquisition by the curious friends for a later date.

When they arrived at the boutique, Rarity immediately found a measuring tape and began to find his dimensions. As soon as this was finished, she started on making the clothes. After a while, Brandon became bored and began to explore the house. He found nothing of interest until somepony screamed behind him.

"MONSTER!" screamed Sweetie Belle, rocketing away from him. "MONSTER!" She ran into the room Rarity occupied, crashing into her and causing the fashionista to droop Brandon's unfinished clothing.

"Sweetie Belle! What on earth has got you so worked up?" she exclaimed, levitating her work in front of her and quickly smoothing any wrinkles that its fall may have caused it to develop.

"Rarity, there's a giant MONKEY in the house!" shouted the excitable filly, hiding behind her older sister.

Brandon walked in, looking a little embarrassed and insulted. He knew, however, that any child would react this way if an unknown creature was discovered in their house.

Rarity was a little less understanding. "Sweetie Belle, that is no monster! That is my good friend Brandon, and he is not a monkey, he is a human! In fact, as I am in the process of making him some new clothes, I would expect you to treat him like a guest and a customer! And-"

"Yeah, yeah, we always treat the customer with the highest respect," she said, clearly having heard this phrase many times over. Now extremely interested in the prospect of getting some kind of human-related cutie mark, she wandered off to find her friends; she was positive this would get rid of at least _one _of their blank flanks!

After she went outdoors, there was a knock and Twilight entered. "Hi, Brandon! I didn't get to question you earlier, so I thought maybe we could run through it now..."

Brandon sighed. "Let's get this over with," he said.

Giving him a surprised glance, she got out her checklist as she mumbled, "Well, _I _enjoy it..."

Brandon sat and answered to the best of his ability, but thanks to his missing memories, he couldn't really answer any of the personal questions. Twilight was still thrilled that she had gotten so much more information on humans, though. After the last question, she rolled up the scroll and said, "This is amazing! You're from a totally different world, where humans are the dominant species! Who would have guessed? William Manes was right all along! The multiverse exists!" She flopped onto a nearby sofa and took a minute to absorb this fact. "Absolutely incredible..."

Brandon took this chance to try to sneak away, but just as he reached the door, Pinkie Pie burst into the room, knocking Brandon back onto his rump. "Hello? Oh, hi Brandon? How are you? I was just coming to ask Rarity about your-" she clapped one hoof onto her muzzle. "Uh...your clothes! Yeah, how are they coming?" she said, talking around her hoof.

"Perfect timing, Pinkie dear!" said Rarity, appearing from the hallway. "Brandon, your outfit is finished!"

_Huh? That's not possible...she probably means she's finished designing it, _he thought. He followed the jewel-flanked pony into the design room, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

The suit was white, with jewels forming designs all the way from the collar to the cuffs of the pant legs. It was easily worth more than the average sports car.

Rarity looked at him expectantly. "What do you think? Oh, and do close your mouth, dear."

Brandon realized his jaw had dropped from sheer astonishment. "Are...is...you...that's for ME?" he stuttered.

"Of course, silly filly! She just said it was a second ago!" Pinky laughed.

"If you don't like it, I made a few others with less jewels...in case you're one of those pon-I mean, in case you don't like jewels," said Rarity, a little anxiety creeping into her voice.

"Um...actually, I'd like those others," he said, "Not because I don't like jewels, but because...uh...well, I wouldn't want to get that kind of suit messy," he stated. Then what she had just said took root. "You made MORE suits?"

"Well of course," she said, surprised. "I wouldn't want to run the risk of making a suit you didn't like, and I forgot to ask you about your preferences."

He shook his head, and decided this was a conversation for another time. "So...how much do I owe you? ...Come to think of it, I don't think I have any money. In fact, I don't even know what you use for money!"

"Oh, don't worry yourself about it, darling. You can have them all for free. After all, you can't possibly pay me without any Bits, and I shudder to think of you wearing those," she gestured to his current attire, "Out in public! Oh, I feel faint already!"

Brandon blinked. _Free...? She's just giving those gems away...for free?_

The clothes were shoved into his arms. "Well, there you are! The dressing room is off to the left, and you know where the exit is! Enjoy! Now, to get started on my next order..."

After changing into the least flashy outfit (which still had an enormous sapphire right by the neck), he and Twilight returned to the library, and watching the reactions of the ponies on their way there. Thankfully it was a short trip, but there was still a lot of commotion generated. He heard several whispered "What in Equestria is that?" and a few less discreet shouts of alarm as ponies scrambled our of his way. He blushed profusely, but Twilight smiled at him.

"Don't worry, they'll get used to you," she said encouragingly. "Trust me, I've seen this kind of thing before."

He would just have to take her word for it.


	9. A random narrative or Chapter Eight

Europe, Late 15th Century

"Kill the witches!"

"Burn them! Burn them!"

"Make them pay for their sins!"

"Kill the magicians! Kill the witches!"

The group of mages was tied around a stake; there were about 10 of them, an unusually high amount to be found at the same time. The mages looked at the crowd, who shouted more hate, spit upon them, threw rotten food and rocks, and did other unspeakable things.

_The worst part is_, thought the lead mage, _they aren't even infected by Darke. This is them, all on their own._ She shook her head in despair, and shed a tear as the smoke started to rise.

"You know what to do," she whispered to her neighbor. "I regret that it had to come to this." Her neighbor nodded, and passed on the word.

As the flames gained strength, the lead mage shouted, "Now!"

All the mages raised their hands. Conveniently, they had been placed in a ring, which enhanced the strength of their magic. They began to chant, and as the flames reached their torsos, they uttered one final word in Latin that reverberated through the small village they were in. The villagers flinched and dove for cover, but nothing seemed to happen except a slight breeze that rustled the leaves of the trees. The villagers exhaled; the spell had failed. At least, they thought it had.

"It is done," said the lead mage, but she did not look happy. "The Barrier is in place. Ambrosius will be most pleased." She began to lose her vision; this was a side effect of using such major magic when her Ring did not wish it. Her sight blurred, and she began to lose consciousness as the flames and smoke overcame her.

_Long live Equestria. Long live...Magyck._

You may be thinking: What the heck? What happened to Brandon? What about the Ponies? Did you accidentally put a chapter of some other weird fantasy story in here? And why did you misspell 'magic' in that last sentence? You need an editor! Well, just wait. All will be explained.

First things first: Magyck. It is very different from magic. In fact, it is often the source of magic. Magic is, as has been theorized, a form of energy. However, Magyck is not just energy. It is living energy, capable of thought and, more importantly, capable of reversing the role of magic and magician. Often, a wizard with Magyck is not in control of themselves. The Magyck is in control, so much so that the magician does not even realize it. Magicians are rarely able to weild Magyck for this reason.

It may seem that this explains nothing, but be patient. Magyck is extremely prominent in Equestria, a prime example being the Darke Magyck that inhabited Luna. This is a characteristic of Darke that is fairly disturbing; unlike most other Magyck, it tends to inhabit a living being almost permanently, altering their personality and causing them to slowly become more selfish, violent, and power-hungry the longer the Darke remains in them. The Darke then feeds off the negative, or dark, energy that is given off by these actions.

Lighte Magyck typically works in a very different way. It inhabits an object, such as a weapon, article of jewelry or clothing, etc. This object will give immense power to any being that wields it, but only if the bearer contains sufficient positive, or "light", energy within them. Take the Elements of Harmony, for example; they contain an ancient Lighte that has unimaginable power, but it only allows one to use it for something good. Another thing about the Lighte: It destroys the Darke on contact without any resistance, similar to the way actual light will brush away the darkness effortlessly.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rules. Darke can sometimes inhabit objects, which are often regarded as being cursed. Terrible misfortune befalls the owner of such items, and this negativity is what the Darke feeds off of. Likewise, Lighte can inhabit living creatures. Princess Celestia is often regarded as an Alicorn that has been possessed by Lighte. In fact, some Magyck does not even need a physical object to inhabit. Take fire elementals, for example; they are pure, sentient fire Magyck.

Now we get to the point of all this explaining. Something that would be helpful to know first, however, is that Equestria and Earth were once the same world. There was an abundance of Magyck, and it existed in a mostly unchanging state. Occasionally an Equestrian would stumble into a human village, or a band of nomadic humans would wander into Equestria. This usually did not end well for the Equestrians; they were usually forced to work for the humans or kept as entertainment or pets. They were rarely killed, however; at that point, humans could still recognize sentience when they saw it.

Magyck, and thus magic, are very rare on Earth in modern times, because, starting during the days of the Roman Empire, humans began a war of sorts against Magyck. This is because humans fear what they do not understand. Inquisitors burned witches at the stake, magicians were killed out of fear, and technology gave humanity the tools to continue their crusade.

Ironically, magic is what caused science to advance. Humans are inherently magic-absorbent; therefore, once humans abandoned the use of magic, the absorbed energy had to be used for something, as the population was becoming massively saturated with magic but were using none of it. So, adaptive as ever, the human body used the excess to increase the learning capacity of the mind. For this reason, humans are highly intelligent, with knowledge of magic being the exception by their own choice, while Equestrians are highly magical, but still live with fairly rudimentary technology.

As Magyck was persecuted, it began to retreat into Equestria. A few mages, the only ones who understood the true nature of Magyck, could do nothing but erect a powerful World Barrier, separating Equestria from Earth, before humanity destroyed the beauty and innocence of the planet's magical denizens.

They have remained separate ever since, but similarities remain: The same languages, written and spoken, exist in Equestria and Earth, with English being the dominant language. This is a result of the Equestrians having contact with the humans, and absorbing a bit of their culture.

However, quite recently, the barrier was disrupted. The repercussions of this are still to be seen...


	10. Chapter Nine

As he awoke facedown in bed, he slowly became aware of the throbbing in his head once again. _Uuuuugh, _thought Brandon. He wished this headache would leave him alone, but ever since the day after he met Twilight and her friends, it just kept getting worse. He hadn't told Twilight about it yet, but considering he was living in the Dusty Book Room until further notice, he knew it would only be a matter of time until she noticed that something was wrong with him. He should probably ask her to check it out with magic or something.

He'd been reading a lot of books, since he was living in a library and all, and he had learned a lot about how things worked here. The weird thing was that, even though he knew this was all impossible scientifically, it made sense to him. Not only had he accepted the existence of talking ponies, pegasi and unicorns unusually quickly, he also felt like magic was normal, like it fit here. He had no idea why, but everything here seemed to make sense in a way that he couldn't explain with the facts he knew. He suspected it had something to do with his lost memories.

There was something else, too. Besides his splitting headache, he felt good. Very good. He felt totally energized, totally amazing. This didn't make any sense either, since about 5 days ago he'd been at the center of an explosion in Twilight's basement. He should be laying in a bed with life support systems surrounding him, barely holding onto life, at best! He almost hadn't realized it amongst all the other impossible occurrences, but it had dawned on him one sleepless, head-pounding night that people didn't just make a full recovery from a blast like that in two days. Twilight had said that she had not used any healing magic on him either, for fear of damaging his alien body, though she had healed herself. Perhaps this world had different laws than his; this was one reason for all his research. The other was Twilight's insistence that he inform himself on the basic workings of their world, considering it was doubtful he would be returned to his former life anytime soon, even if he _did _regain his memory.

He sat there staring blankly into space for a few seconds, slowly coming to terms with the pain in his cranium. He then proceeded to trudge downstairs, smacking his head against the low ceiling and groaning in agony as his headache intensified tenfold.

Twilight set her book entitled _Exoticae_ _Animalium _down and gave him a worried look. "Are you feeling okay, Brandon?" she asked, walking over.

"No," said Brandon, rubbing his temples. "I feel like my head is ready to explode."

"Is it bad? What if you have some sort of disease? I mean, it's possible that there's a disease that we've become immune to but humans are susceptible to it! What if you _die_? The Princess – mmmph!" She stopped talking, probably because Brandon had clamped his hand over her mouth.

"Have I mentioned that I have a headache?" said Brandon, slightly irritated. Twilight blushed. "And besides, I doubt I have any sort of disease, but that's why I was going to ask you if you could give me a checkup. You can do that with magic, can't you?" He waited for a response, until he realized that he was still holding her mouth shut. He relinquished his hold on her muzzle. "You can do that, right?"

"Of course. I should have done this earlier. I can't believe I didn't think to perform a diagnostics spell..." she mumbled a bit more as she paced around nervously.

"For heaven's sake, stop worrying and just do it!" he said, as loud as he could manage considering his aching head.

"Huh? What's..." Brandon gave her a look. "Oh. Okay. I probably only need to check your head, right? I mean, does anything else hurt?"

"No, the rest of me feels perfect. It's just this darned headache..." he said, as he continued to massage his skull.

"All right, here goes!" As she started the spell, her horn glowed brightly. He figured it was probably the light emitted from her horn, but his headache flared worse the brighter her horn flared.

Twilight concentrated on Brandon's head. She did this often enough when Spike felt sick; casting it on a human probably wouldn't bring up any complications. Her consciousness reached out and began to gather information. As soon as her spell penetrated his skull, however, she was overcome by pure energy. She almost passed out before she managed to retreat from his mind. _What...? _ She rarely saw that much concentrated magic anywhere; in fact, the only times she'd seen more was from herself, Luna, and Celestia. Brandon had told her that magic didn't exist in his world. If what he said was true, how was it that he had so much power? And he only had a headache!

"Uhh, Twilight?" Brandon said, a little worried. He assumed something was very wrong. As soon as she'd begun the spell, her eyes became pure white for an instant, and then she sat down, staring blankly at nothing in particular. He didn't know if it was because he was in trouble, or if it was because she was in trouble. He prodded her shoulder. "Hello-o, Earth to Twilight..."

She shook her head. "That's an interesting expression..." she said. "Do humans say that as a way of attempting to reconnect their fellow humans with reality?" Yup, she was back. "And if so, does that mean that humans have the mentality that their own world is the only reality to which one might connect with? If I may say so, that is a rather shallow line of thought..."

"I think it's a little simpler than that, but could you tell me what you saw?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, of course," she said, her expression becoming serious. "You...er...well, didn't you say that magic didn't exist in your world?" she questioned.

"That is correct. Well, I guess it hasn't been scientifically proven that it doesn't exist, but it is generally regarded as –"

"Well, that makes a huge difference!" said Twilight, now piecing multiple theories together in her mind and determining which was most likely to be true. "My hypothesis, then, is that humans simply have not discovered that magic exists. But...no, wait, that doesn't make sense..."

"Could you please," said Brandon, very calmly, "Tell me what is going on here?"

"Based on what I observed in your head, humans must be capable of using magic..." rambled Twilight, still mostly to herself. "So why do they think that it doesn't exist? Surely, as magic wielding creatures, they should have discovered it by now..."

Brandon didn't follow. "Wait, _what?_" he sputtered, ignoring his headache's protests. "WHAT did you SEE?"

"Your head. It was full of magic." She said this as though it were obvious; being lost in her own thoughts, it had not yet occurred to her that he didn't know what she'd seen.

"Oh, yes, that makes perfect sense. My headache is caused by magic." He was being sarcastic, but after he said it, he thought, _Why not?_ After all, this _was_ a completely different world he was in. Why shouldn't there be magic-induced migraines?

He left Twilight to be in her own little world for a while; from what Spike had told him, she was pretty much incapable of communicating when she got like this. She rushed over to a bookshelf and began rifling through its contents.

He went back up to his room, careful to avoid the treacherously low ceiling, and sat down on the bed. He picked up the book and started reading again. Even though it wasn't fun, what with his headache and all, he figured it was more productive than laying there in pain.

The book he was reading was actually a book on magical spells. Not that he had expected to be able to use any, but Twilight suggested it because she thought he would need the knowledge of what unicorns were capable of. _Huh, _he thought, smiling to himself. _Based on what Twilight said, maybe I could do some of these after all. _He flipped through the pages of the book to the most basic spell: Levitation. It was basic because it only required that you imagine something was floating, will it to happen, and theoretically, it would float. Of course, you needed to be able to use magic as well. _Well, here goes._ His eyes searched the room for something to practice on. They settled on a book; not surprising, as that _was_ the most plentiful object in the room. He closed his eyes. _This is ridiculous, _he thought. _It's never going to work._ But regardless, out of curiosity, he tried anyways.

He imagined the book floating up into the air, suspended by nothing but pure force of will. Immediately, nothing happened. He barely had enough time to feel disappointed, however, when suddenly he felt something click in his mind. Something was happening! He felt the magic flowing... but then it all went wrong. After the first instant, the sheer power of the magic started to overcome him. He now realized why Twilight had looked so stunned at first; there was a _lot _of magic penned up inside his head. And he couldn't control it. The book went from floating in midair to shooting skyward at ridiculous speed. It punched through the ceiling of his room and through the roof of the house. An alarmed whinny came from outside. He managed to stop the spell, after he remembered that all he needed to do was stop imagining that the book was floating.

He sat there for a second, not quite believing what had just happened. But the angry pegasus outside, knocking on the window and rubbing his head where the unintended missile had struck him, was proof that he had just performed magic. Somehow, he was able to not only levitate a book, but send it through the ceiling of Twilight's house.

On another note, his headache felt a little better. Interesting. This definitely 'merited further research', as his purple friend would say.

**Hey everypony, thanks once more for all the comments! I'm getting lots of positive feedback! And thanks to minjask6572 for catching that error in chapter six!**

**I am back on track! Soon I'll be on spring break, and "Spring Break" = "All the time in the world to write chapters"! Soon I should have chapter 10 out! :D**

**To be honest, I only have a general idea of where this story is going; I'm kind of letting the characters write it for me. I hope to have the next chapter done in... about 5 days maximum. I hope you are all enjoying this as much as I am!**


	11. Chapter Ten

"Is that the best you've got?" taunted Twilight, though she was obviously impressed with his abilities. "I can do better than that in my sleep!" She had also apparently been taking lessons from Rainbow Dash; either that, or she'd read some book titled _The Beginner's Guide to Goading _or something of the sort. Brandon would have to tease her about that later.

Brandon concentrated again, visualizing the energy in the magic-rich atmosphere coalescing into something substantial. Both of his hands began to glow, a bright blue-green to contrast his mentor's darker purple. Twilight stared in awe once more; the sight still amazed her, even after numerous practice sessions. Humans had two magical focal points, their hands; this gave them the enormous advantage of being able to perform multiple spells at once, though it took a lot of skill (more than Brandon had accrued). It also increased their efficiency if they used both hands to cast one spell, meaning Brandon could cast the same spell as her, but use less energy. It was beyond her how they could have given up that kind of potential.

Brandon was a quick learner; then again, as he had reminded her, he had the most talented magician in Ponyville to teach him. He'd already mastered basic and intermediate levitation, as well as magic manipulation, and he'd managed to grasp several other concepts, even if he hadn't actually put them into practice yet.

While the young stall- er, "boy" was attempting to perfect the aforementioned fields, Twilight had seen him do some things on accident that she had never seen done before in her life. Naturally, she was documenting everything, and she could barely keep herself focused on the task at hand, so excited was she to research these new spells. She hoped she could even use them; she suspected that some spells were unique to unicorns, and consequently there were probably other spells that only humans could cast, though it was more than likely from Brandon's description of his race that they were lost to history. _And that's just how I like it, _she thought. _It's like when I researched the Mare in the Moon! I'll be able to re-document everything, for the first time in... well, however long it's been since humans used magic! _

She blinked, and then refocused on Brandon. That second's distraction, however, had caused her to miss the fact that Brandon had hurled a sizable hunk of raw, blue-green colored magic at her. _Whoops... _she kicked herself for letting her mind wander as she braced herself for impact.

The missile slammed into her barrier, and she felt the shield weaken a bit. For the millionth time that day, she marveled at how much raw magic he could handle. If she trained him well, he could be more powerful than her someday! The thought struck her along with several other magical projectiles, and both surprised her. She inwardly reprimanded herself. She had to pay attention and use her knowledge to her advantage in these spars, not her raw power, because it would help Brandon learn and, at the same time, allow her to survive things like this. Reacting on instinct, she simply bumped it to the side this time instead of stopping the magic short or absorbing it.

"Powerful, but amateur. Raw magic isn't your weapon of choice against other magicians," Twilight said reproachfully. Despite her polite, kind, and usually gentle demeanor, she knew a lot about battle magic, which wasn't something most ponies knew about her, simply because they never bothered to ask. Truthfully, Twilight didn't particularly want her friends to know that she had the potential to be a walking death machine anyways. Most ponies get nervous around that kind of power.

Brandon took a moment to think, then stretched his hands in front of him again, eyes closed in the sunlight of the outdoors. Twilight observed his actions carefully, as being a couple seconds ahead of the game in a magician's duel could be the difference between life and death. As Brandon knew only the spells Twilight had taught him, she could predict which he would use, and thus remain safe.

Now, a keen observer or thinker may ask why Twilight was teaching her new student a form of magic that was rather violent and, in the current state of events, unnecessary. Well, it turns out that humans, tending more towards violence and other aspects of evil than equestrians, are thus better equipped for the magic of war than, say, a unicorn. In other words, fighting came naturally to humans. Twilight, having uncovered more ancient tomes regarding humans with the help of Pinkie Pie, discovered this, and so decided that this would be a good thing to teach her new bipedal companion. She knew humans' reputations, but she saw a good heart in Brandon, so perhaps not all humans were as bad as her books said they were.

She cast a spell that rearranged the molecular structure of the air 10 feet in front of her, causing it to compress and become electrically conductive. She then calmly observed as blue-green lightning leapt from Brandon's slender fingers to the invisible lightning rod between them, and then into the ground. He quickly cast another spell, in an attempt to liquify the earth beneath her, but found that she had nullified that as well; the ground on which she stood contained so much clay and silt that water couldn't work its way up from the bedrock.

He suspected that she may have done that seconds before the spell took effect as well, but as he had neglected to document the soil content, he couldn't be sure. Twilight may have taken him here for training for just that reason, for all he knew. She _would _take notes on which areas had the lowest rainwater absorbency rate...

The advice she had constantly given him ever since she became his...teacher, of sorts, suddenly rang in his head. "You should have seen that coming," she'd said, after she had dodged a random object he'd flung at her using levitation during their second training session, and then flipped him upside down and spun him around several times until he was too dizzy to stand. "I kept edging closer and closer until I was close enough to levitate you, but you were absorbed in thinking of new ways to attack! You need to pay more attention! Monitor everything! Don't just use what's in your head! Knowing what's happening around you is just as important as knowing what you are going to do about it."

He had contemplated this, and although it was difficult to put into practice, he felt that he had improved vastly from where he'd begun, and he was pretty sure Twilight felt the same way. And this one piece of advice had not only improved his magic, but if applied to everyday life, it could change everything! In paying attention to his surroundings, he noticed things he'd never paid heed to before, at least not that he could remember. Everything felt new, and not just because he was in a different world, either. In fact, it seemed like a completely separate world from the one he'd inhabited prior to his epiphany.

Brandon's training ended as usual: with him feeling exhausted and Twilight untouched. She had told him that once he managed to beat her, she would teach him how she did it. It drove him crazy, even though he knew she was right. How did she have so much energy? He always felt totally drained after a duel, but she deflected everything he threw at her in an almost bored manner, and afterwards had more than enough energy to be her normal, freakishly organized self.

He smiled to himself as they walked home. No matter how much her personality grated on him, in retrospect it always seemed so... well, for lack of a better word, cute. All of the ponies he had seen so far had that effect on him; some were very hospitable, others were full of themselves, and a few were quite shy, but all of them were cute. Several times, he'd been seized by the impulse to just hug a random passing pony, which usually ended awkwardly. (He had vowed to never try to hug Big Macintosh again, after his attempts to wrap his arms around the farm pony's neck were mistaken for an assault.)

He ate his dinner, a simple meal of sliced apples and carrots. He hadn't been able to hide his omnivorousness from his host, as she had been researching his kind nonstop. Fortunately, though she was slightly unnerved by the fact at first, she understood that different species had different diets. After all, she lived with a dragon that ate gemstones! After giving his word that he wouldn't try to hunt any animals (as if he knew how), Twilight was satisfied that he would not cause mass panic among the town's citizens by walking down the street eating a chicken leg.

After clearing his plate, he dragged himself to the Dusty Room That Belonged to Brandon, his very own title for it. The room was named to specifically to get on Twilight's nerves until she let him clean it. She was worried that he might ruin the supposed "organized" manner of the books that still dominated every square foot of the room, and refused to let him clean it without her supervision. After seeing her calendar for the next month, he very much doubted she would have much time to do so anytime soon.

He picked up his book, a large, ancient-looking hunk of paper with a faded cover, and commenced studying. The book was on battle magic, but this book had the same basic problem for him that every other book in the library had: it was written for unicorns. Big surprise, huh?

This doesn't seem like much of a problem to someone who knows little about magic, and it hadn't even occurred to Brandon at first. But after a few spells that had wildly unexpected results (he recalled the poor stallion he had accidentally turned into a manticore, and how Twilight had spent half the day trying to revert him back to a pegasus), he discovered that magic depended as much on anatomy as chants and runes. One could not cast a spell one was not equipped for, and it worked both ways; he had seen Twilight's eyes widen more than once at some of the spells he'd cast. The irony of the fact that the books were written in his language so improbably, yet they were still of limited use, had not escaped him.

He studied and practiced long into the night, trying to teach himself some spell, _any _spell, that would come as a surprise to his well-read mentor. He suspected that she could counter his attacks so easily because she knew everything he was learning by heart. However, he had realized that night while munching on an apple slice that his greatest obstacle was also his greatest advantage; if humans could cast spells that equestrians couldn't, and human magic was unknown in Equestria, then perhaps some spell unique to his race could get past the bookish unicorn's defenses. Then she couldn't needle him about his magical ineptitude! Heartened by this, he worked until he fell asleep, head resting on a book.

**I'll say it again, though I've said it so many times before, thank you all for your positive reviews! They definitely motivate me to keep on with this story! Please, pleeeeeease, review! And review honestly, give me your opinion, and why you think what you think! If you're feeling particularly helpful, point out specific parts that you especially liked or disliked! Thanks in advance!**


	12. Chapter Eleven

He woke with a start. Something in the room had disturbed him. He looked around, but could see nothing but darkness. Perhaps he'd been having a nightmare? No, he'd have remembered that. Had there been a sudden noise? He listened closely, but he couldn't hear anything except the sound of his own bated breath.

His respiration slowed as his nerves calmed down. Who knew why he'd woken up, but now that he was up, he might as well get a snack; he was famished from the previous day's practice, and that midnight studying hadn't filled his belly at all, either. What was he thinking, going upstairs after eating nothing but a few sliced apples?

He stood up from his chair, and blundering over to the door, was scared out of his wits by a shifting shape in the shadows. His mind filled with an instinctive terror, and he backed away, too shocked to make a sound.

The darkness itself seemed to be coalescing into a solid form, kicking up the copious amounts of dust that lay around his room. It seemed like it...he looked closer, still terrified, but also confused.

Was it forming a...pony?

Yes, it was forming a pony! And an unusually large one, at that; it was at least twice as large as Twilight, by the looks of it. Was it here to punish him? Attack him? Discovering that a giant version of the ponies he'd seen around Ponyville seemed to be forming from pure darkness didn't exactly comfort Brandon.

The pony finished it's formation, and looked at him. It seemed to have suddenly become considerably darker in the room, and that was saying something, since it had been dark in the first place. However, for some reason he could see every detail of her just as easily as if it had been daylight, and he could tell by the way her eyes scanned him that she could see him as well. It was slightly disconcerting, the way she stood out from the pitch black background of the rest of the room. It was as if there were light shining on her, and absolutely nothing else.

She sneezed.

The massive equine presence batted at the dust swirling around them for a few seconds before saying anything. "Greetings be unto you, human known as 'Brandon'," she said, her mouth wrapping around his name as she pronounced the strange word. "Our name is Luna, princess of the night. Our sister, the Princess Celestia, hath told us of thine existence, and we seem to be so fortunate so as to have called upon thou when thou wast awake."

Brandon blinked. What? Had he stumbled into the pony version of the twelfth century? Is that why he woke up? Maybe he fell through some kind of time warp.

Luna, seeing that he wasn't about to respond, spoke again. Well, perhaps 'spoke' is a bit of an understatement. "HUMAN! HEAR OUR WORDS!" she shouted, making his ears feel like thay were about to bleed. "BE THOU THE ONE TWILIGHT SPARKLE HATH WRITTEN LETTERS TO OUR SISTER REGARDING?" The dust around them worked itself into a frenzy, and even more dust was drawn up as her mighty Voice blew over Brandon and through the rest of the room. He was left with ringing ears when it died down.

A loud grumbling came from down the hall. Brandon gulped.

"Er...Princess...Luna, is it? Yeeeeah, um, you might want to...tone it...down a little?" he suggested, extremely tentatively. He got the feeling this wasn't a pony you wanted angry with you. "Yes, I know Twilight, if that's wh-"

Brandon never finished his sentence. The door exploded inward and a groggy Twilight (the most dangerous kind) stormed in. "All right, Brandon, what in the world is..." She trailed off as she caught sight of the princess standing there in the dust next to her human houseguest.

The sleep-deprived mare fell all over herself trying to bow. "Er...uh...Princess Luna! What...er...brings you here?" she asked, a slightly worried tone slipping into her previously annoyed voice.

Luna looked at Twilight, her face the epitome of serious, but also slightly guilty. "We came to meet thy apprentice, Twilight Sparkle. We apologize sincerely for the intrusion and disruption of thy...nighttime activities."

"Well, er..." Twilight shifted awkwardly. "I guess I'll...go back to bed. Good night, Princess. 'Night, Brandon." She left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Luna looked at Brandon. "So, art thou a nocturnal creature? T'would seem so, as we found thee awake in the middle of our night."

Brandon, who was still a little bit stunned from his new acquaintance's high-decibel outburst, managed to shake his head. "N-no, I don't really know why I was awake. I was just going to get a snack, when you...showed up."

Luna looked a little disappointed. "Ah. Well. I suppose we should get to the reason that we hath come here." She nodded. "We came to question you. Our sister has sensed a great evil afoot as of late. She wondered whether you might have any knowledge of it."

"Uh, why would I? I only just got here, after all." Brandon was slightly confused by the question.

"Our sister sensed the abomination enter our world just days after Twilight Sparkle reportedly tested her...invention," Luna said. "Both of us, then, agreed that it was necessary that I question you as to whether you had any knowledge of the incident." The large purple and black alicorn looked at him suspiciously. Brandon felt a tad nervous. He hadn't met Luna or Celestia personally, but from the stories he had read and/or been told by Twilight (he had heard what he believed to be every Celestia story in existence from his unicorn friend numerous times, as a matter of fact), these two sisters were some of the most powerful beings in Equestria. Having them suspect you of bringing some super-evil into their kingdom wasn't really something he needed at the moment, especially since he was a little busy with his own problems, such as memory loss and, only slightly less important, being stuck in an alternate dimension.

Not that he had a problem with Equestria. Based on what little he could remember of his former residence, this place was a utopia. Well, with ponies as the dominant life-form, but who said humans had to be in charge for it to be a utopia?

"Twilight Sparkle had mentioned something else to our sister about you, though." Luna seemed to have abandoned the archaic speech; well, except for referring to herself as "us". She also, Brandon noted with much thanks, had lowered the volume level considerably, though this seemed to be more of a conscious effort. He didn't blame her; as mentioned before, Twilight was quite fearsome when she was woken up earlier than she planned to. It 'threw the entire remainder of the day off'. She didn't seem to realize that it was waking up LATE that really messed up your plans, but then again, Brandon suspected that "late" was one of the few concepts that were completely foreign to Twilight. And then he was brought back from his pondering.

"You were asked a question, Human." Luna was giving him the 'pay better attention to me when I'm talking, or I'll send you into the asphyxiating void of space' look. Or perhaps Brandon was misinterpreting, but he wasn't about to take any chances.

"Er...I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

"We asked thee whether thou hast suffered from loss of thine memories in the few days past since your arrival. Wouldst thou give us thine answer, prithee? Or shall we repeat our inquiry once more for thee?" Her voice gained a slight, but definite, tone of impatience.

"Ehh...uhh..." Brandon stuttered nervously. She was back to the eleventh century stuff, and not only was it hard to understand, but he suspected it also meant she was getting annoyed with him. Finally, he managed to figure out what she was asking. "Um, yes, Princess." He gave her a tight grin. "Yes, I remember very little of where I came from." Sheesh, how many letters could Twilight write to...oh. Wait. Never mind. That was a stupid question.

Luna regarded him for a second before continuing. "Our sister has offered to attempt the restoration your memories on one condition," she said, emphasizing the fact that this was not, in fact, going to be a free act of goodwill. Understandable, as Twilight had showed him some books regarding human interactions with equestrians in the distant past, though he still didn't understand how that was possible. To put it lightly, his kind was not held in high respect or honor.

Luna continued. "She has heard of your magical capabilities, and wishes you to assist us in tracking down and destroying the aforementioned evil." Luna did not sound like she thought this was a stellar idea. "She believes that you may be...of assistance." The dark Alicorn spoke slowly, picking her words with care. Brandon thought about this for a second. Perhaps it wasn't worth it? After all, he didn't know if his memories were even all that great. But in the end, he decided that this could not only help him, but also all of Equestria. "Can Twilight come?"

Luna looked surprised, but answered, "That is for our sister to decide. 'Twas her idea to have thee along from the start."

"Well...I'll think about it." Brandon didn't feel comfortable just going off demon-hunting with a pair of god-ponies, one of which didn't seem too fond of him. He would feel a lot safer if Twilight could accompany him, since he still knew very little about magic as it was. Obviously she'd been praising him a bit too highly in her reports to the princess if he was thought of as "great evil" slaying material.

Luna regarded him with one last guarded glance, and then rather bluntly said, "We have other things to attend to, so if thou art finished, we shall be off." In two twitches of a pony's tail, she was gone, absorbed into the shadows, and suddenly Brandon remembered how dark it was now that his eyes didn't have anything to focus on.

He carefully traversed the distance between himself and the door, and then opened it. Blundering down the stairs, he finally managed to make it to the kitchen.

"So, what did Princess Luna have to say?"

For the second time that night, Brandon almost jumped out of his skin. He turned around to find a tired-looking Twilight, sipping a cup of tea. "What the hay?! You scared me-"

"Shhhh, Spike is asleep!"

"Oh, as if anything I did could wake him up," said Brandon, quieting down nonetheless. "You could have...uh, well, don't scare me like that!"

Twilight smirked. "I have to get my pranks in when I can, with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie around." Her face returned to its previous, serious manner. "But in all seriousness, what did the Princess want to talk to you about? It must have been really important for her to come personally instead of just writing me a letter..."

Brandon thought she looked almost...hurt? He knew she would have expected the Princess to contact her first, so it made sense. "Well, she wanted to make a sort of deal with me."

"A deal? What kind of deal?" Instantly the curious equine was cheered up, completely distracted by the change of subject. Bullseye, thought Brandon. "Well, she told me that her sister-"

"Princess Celestia?"

"Er...yes, her. She said that Celestia would try to use magic to restore my memories."

Twilight looked astounded. "She came all the way here to tell you that?! That's easy! Simple! A letter would have been a perfectly acceptable method of communicating that!" She was building up to full-scale rant mode. This was not good.

Brandon interrupted her before she could get too angry. "She also told me that Celestia wanted me to help both of them stop some great evil something or other. She didn't-"

"WHAT?! She wants you to hunt some thing down? Alone?!"

"Well, no. She said that I would be going with both of them." Then, seeing the look on Twilight's face, he quickly added, "I asked if you could come, but Luna said that was up to...the other princess."

"Well," said Twilight. "I hope she will at LEAST allow me to do that. Just don't tell my friends, or they'll want to come along too, and I...well, I don't want them to get hurt."

"I wouldn't either. Especially when it would be to help me get my memory back; I don't know if I could ever forgive myself for that." He looked away. "Let's just keep this to ourselves."

"Agreed." Twilight nodded solemnly.

* * *

><p>Outside the window, a shadow withdrew after hearing this conversation and, after a moment's pause, shot down the darkened street to spread the news.<p> 


	13. Chapter Twelve

Twilight sighed. This conversation was not going well.

"Twilight, you gotta let us come with! You just GOTTA!"

That was Pinkie, of course, but the others nodded their assent. They had all arrived at the Library that morning, demanding to know why Twilight and Brandon were leaving, and what exactly they would be doing, and why they couldn't come along. Why had Pinkie even been AWAKE at that time of night?! Hmmph...

"I-or rather, Pinkie," she said, glaring at the bouncing ball of energy who grinned back in response, "Already told you everything we know. 'Dangerous monster! Twilight and Brandon! His memory! Leaving tomorrow! AAAHHHHH!'" said Twilight, mimicking Pinkie. "Yup, that pretty much sums it up."

Everyone there stared deadpan at Twilight except Pinkie, who looked astonished. "How did YOU know what I said?!"

Twilight groaned and applied hoof to face. "I can read your mind, Pinkie. Now, if we could-"

"REALLY!?" Pinkie looked worried. "What else did you hear me thinking? Or is it more like seeing what I'm thinking...?" Her expression turned pensive. "Or do you THINK what I'm thinking!"

"Pinkie, I was just kidding!" Twilight growled. She paused, recomposed herself, and continued. "This is Brandon's mission. If you want to go along, take it up with him."

_Oh, thanks a ton, Twilight,_ thought Brandon.

Instantly, four ponies were surrounding him, employing various methods of pleading, threatening, guilt-tripping and bribing to get him to let them come along. He felt like he was drowning.

Fluttershy stayed back. "Um...Twilight?"

"Yes, Fluttershy?"

"Well, I was just wondering...umm...if you could...uh...what...you're looking for? It's not a...dragon?" She squeaked out the last word, as if saying it any louder or less adorably would cause one to appear right next to her. "It's not is it?" she asked, still squeaking.

Twilight shook her head. "I don't know. All Luna told us was that it was a 'great evil' that Brandon would be looking for. We don't even know if it's a creature; it might just be some event or something." She looked doubtful as she said this. It was hard to imagine an event entering Equestria, and that was how Luna had phrased it, according to Brandon. Speaking of Brandon...

"PleasepleasePLEEEEEEEASE!" implored Rarity. "I can't just let you two go wandering off on your own!" She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Remember what happened when we let Spikey Wikey do that? Why, he was almost killed!"

Spike, who happened to be walking by at the moment carrying a stack of books, interjected, "Yeah, I sure wandered off ON MY OWN. It's not like anypony DISGUISED themselves just to FOLLOW me because they didn't think I was dragon enough to make it out there." He continued on his way while Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked slightly embarrassed.

"But still," said Rainbow Dash, after a moment, "You're just gonna leave us out of this awesome adventure? I could totally kick some evil whatchamacallit's flank!"

"And ah can't leave mah friends hangin' either. Ah mean, what if ya'all DID get killed? How d'ya think that'd make US feel, huh?"

Everyone was silent for a moment after Applejack hit the clown on the nose. When she put it THAT way...well, suddenly Brandon saw how much he and Twilight could hurt them by leaving without them.

"Okay. You can come," Brandon said into the sudden silence. Everypony stared at him for a moment, and then there was a massive cheering from the five new party members, and all of them piled onto him in a massive pony group hug. Twilight was left staring skeptically at him, but after a few moments of though, she, too, joined the hugging, though with slightly less enthusiasm than the rest.

The following day, they set off to Canterlot.

**All right everypony! This story is back up and running, after more than four months of inactivity! This chapter is a bit short, I know, but I'm just getting myself back up and into the feel of things, so don't worry, they won't all be this small.**

**I have so many great plans for this story! :DI hope you all haven't forgotten about it!**


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Canterlot was beautiful.

There was no other way to describe it. Brandon loved the hustle and bustle that took place in the busy streets, and the tall majestic buildings. It made him feel at home.

Their destination being the throne room, they went straight there instead of wandering about the market and socializing as Rarity had wanted to do. She put up quite a fuss, but Twilight stood firm and reminded her what they were here for, and the fabulous unicorn reluctantly left behind all the shops and glamorous ponies.

When they arrived in the throne room after being quickly inspected by the Royal Guard, Celestia was there waiting for them. She looked slightly confused as the six friends entered alongside Brandon, but then seemed to accept the fact without question and began to talk.

"It's good to see you all again," she said to the ponies. "And it's good to finally meet you, Brandon the Human. Now, as my dear sister Luna told you, I have promised to attempt to restore your memories. The best way to do this," she continued, "is to help you find your way back to your world."

Immediately Twilight interjected. "But couldn't you just use the memory restoration spell? Like the one I used after Discord...er...Discorded all my friends?" She had obviously expected Celestia to attempt this.

Celestia smiled. "My dear Twilight, that was indeed a memory spell, but memory is a complicated thing. You were not restoring memories that were lost; you merely brought them back to the surface. Brandon has completely lost almost all of his personal memories, which means that the spell to restore them would, first of all, need to be done by somepony who knew him very well, and second, would be very difficult even then. If Brandon returns to his world, all the memories that were left behind there will eventually return, although there is no way of telling how long it would take."

She looked at Brandon. "I cannot honestly say I know how to get to your world," she said with a twinkle in her eye, "But I know somepony who almost certainly does. After all, he lived there for several hundred years."

Twilight blinked. Somepony lived in Brandon's world for hundreds of years? And then she thought that over again. Somepony LIVED for hundreds of years?! "Princess...what? How could somepony live that long, besides you? Is he an Alicornus?"

Celestia gave Twilight that smile again, the one that said 'I know something you don't, but you're going to have to figure it out on your own'. "I think I'll let him explain. I really don't understand it myself. Now, shall we get going? Luna!"

Luna appeared at her side, looking tired. "Yes...Tia?" she mumbled groggily, then saw the group of adventurers and tried to perk herself up. "Ah...yes! The quest! I've not been on one of these for..." she thought. "Almost three thousand years. That was with-"

"Luna, we're ready to go," Celestia interrupted, giving Luna an unreadable look. Luna seemed to understand (must have been the fact that they were immortal sisters and had plenty of bonding time), and said, "Well, then, LET US GO!" Celestia nodded, and her horn began to glow. Before Brandon could think, they were in a grassy area next to a cave. There were a few trees scattered about, but the entire thing was surrounded by cliffs that rose perpendicular to the ground. They had been teleported there, of course.

"I apologise, but as much as I trust you all, I promised him I wouldn't let anypony know the way to where his home was." Celestia's mind seemed to drift for a moment, and the she came back to the real world and said, "Well, are we going? He's right inside that cave, though he insists that that's not really where he is. Again, I don't really understand it, but knowing him, he's probably right." She grinned to herself.

Brandon noticed Luna seemed very excited. As they all entered the cave, Celestia and Luna last, he heard the younger sister whisper, "I cannot wait to see him again!" and Celestia respond "Shh, quiet!" She, too, however, seemed to be subduing anxious anticipation.

Brandon was so distracted by this that he almost missed the bizarre feeling that came over him for a small instant. It was as if his entire body had suddenly...no, that couldn't describe it. It was like...like something important around him had suddenly been replaced with an artificial reproduction. Like if his shirt was cotton and then suddenly polyester, but...bigger. Much bigger. Twilight must have felt it too, for she kept glancing about the bare cave walls quizzically, as if looking for something that might be causing it. None of the others seemed to notice, however, be it because they weren't paying attention, didn't care, or both.

Eventually the cave started showing signs of inhabitation. The first thing they saw besides stone walls was...um...a marble statue of a pig? Interesting...Brandon was becoming slightly worried about the sanity of this pony. First the way the Princess talked about how she 'didn't understand him', and then this statue? It sounded like he should be in an insane asylum. Why was Celestia bringing them here?

They passed several more bizarre things, including a giant pea pod and a petrified cockatrice (Probably not carved from stone), before things started to become slightly more standard.

"So who is this guy?" asked Rainbow Dash, flying alongside Princess Celestia. "Have I heard of him? Is he famous?" Celestia laughed. "You could say that," she said cryptically. Clearly they wouldn't get much out of her; she seemed to be enjoying the fact, too.

"What's that?" asked Pinkie. She was in the middle of bouncing on a sofa, and had stopped to listen. Everypony else did too. They heard a sort of grumbling mumbling voice. "Is that him?"

"Sounds like it," said Applejack. "C'mon, ya'all, let's go!" She galloped ahead, and everypony except the princesses followed along. They burst through a curtain and almost ran straight into a pony that was messing around with a sandwich and talking to himself. (In case the type of sandwich matters, it was just a standard Daisy, Lettuce and Hay sandwich. Everypony loves a good DLH.) He was fairly nondescript, not wearing any clothes, and not really having any features that stood out at all, except a very messy short beard and mane.

The group stared at him. He stared at the sandwich.

"Where did you get that?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"I made it," said the stallion, without looking at her.

"It's...nice..." said Fluttershy.

"Thank you kindly," said the stallion, continuing to stare at the sandwich. There was an awkward silence while he continued on with his oddness, and then Pinkie asked, "What're you doing?"

"Hush, I'm busy," he said curtly. In a surprisingly un-pinkie-like manner, she hushed. The stallion's horn lit up for a few moments, and then he straightened up and the flow of magic stopped.

"Ah, there we go," he said, and picked up the sandwich, taking a bite out of it. "Now, first of all, how did you lot find my hideout-er, I mean, house? I suppose you just wandered in past all the horrible traps?"

They blinked. Horrible traps? They didn't have time to dwell on the suspicious comment, however, because Celestia walked in at just that moment. "I'm afraid that would be my doing," she said, as she stepped gracefully through the curtain. Luna followed close behind, and though her eyes were shining with excitement, she managed to keep quiet.

The stallion's eyes lit up in recognition, and he grinned. "Tia! Very nice to see you again! How long has it been since I saw you?

Celestia returned the smile. "About ten centuries, Starswirl."


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Alright everypony, here's more head-canon explanation! Also, keep an eye out for (possibly obvious) clues and references. I put quite a few in here that have to do with our new friend Starswirl...though you may know him by several other names. )**

Twilight's jaw dropped. "You...you're...but...he...you..."

Starswirl completely ignored her. "Celestia, what have I told you about that name? You know I prefer Ambrosius." He finished off his sandwich and licked his lips.

Celestia continued smiling. "Yes, I know. But that's such a silly name. Starswirl suits you much better."

Luna came forward. "It is good to see thee once more, Starswirl. We have missed thee." She bowed her head for a few moments, and Starswirl did the same in return.

"It is mine pleasure, oh Princess of the Night. Thy beauty is as stunning as always."

Luna blushed, and returned to her position at Celestia's side.

Twilight, who had just been coming out of her state of shock, entered it once more when she saw Luna bow to Starswirl. That means...that means...I don't even know what that means! I've never seen either of the Princesses bow to anypony before...just how powerful is Starswirl, anyways?

Twilight took a closer look at the pony who apparently had a status equatable to the Princesses. He had a white mane, a grey-blue coat, and an amorphous cloud of sand for a cutie mark. Additionally, he had long, white beard, his trademark feature. He looked surprisingly young considering his implied age, though he still held the appearance of an old stallion.

The room was almost as strange as its inhabitant. It was full of...stuff, which Pinkie Pie was investigating. Twilight made a mental note to keep an eye on her; she didn't get the feeling that anything in here was remotely safe to fool around with. There were several things that looked like experiments in progress, like a beam of energy traveling between two spheres of metal, and passing through a strangely colored liquid in a beaker. Other things...well, one could only guess at their significance. A blue police box in the corner, for example. Why did Starswirl need a police box...?

Brandon had no idea what was going on, and so he stepped forward and initiated conversation, hoping to have some questions answered. He was sorely disappointed.

"Um, hello, Starswirl. I'm Brandon, and I'm a-"

"Human, yes, I know," finished Starswirl, looking bored. However, after a few moments, a look of confusion crossed his face. "Wait, did you come here with them?" he asked, gesturing to the ponies.

"Yes, he did," answered Celestia. "We came to see if-"

"That can't be," interrupted Starswirl, eliciting more awe from the group of six friends. He had interrupted the Princess!

Ignoring this, Starswirl continued on. "Humans aren't permitted to enter Equestria." He turned to Celestia and Luna. "Are you postitive? Perhaps he hit you with an Imperium ray after meeting you on the fringes of my home? No, wait, he doesn't have that 25th century look about him..."

Everypony looked at him in confusion, causing him to sigh in frustration. "Okay, so he came with you from Equestria. How did he get there, then?"

Twilight raised a hoof. "Uh, are you really Starswirl the Bearded?"

The bearded stallion gave her an annoyed look. "Yes, I am. Now how did he supposedly get into Equestria?"

Twilight shrank back, a little offended, but answered, "Well, a malfunction in one of my inventions brought him here. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I'm researching possible causes and methods, including molecular-"

"Bloody technology..." interrupted Starswirl for the third time. "Always messing with my spells." He rushed over to a brick that looked positively ancient and levitated it up to his face. He cast a spell, muttering a phrase that Twilight barely heard: "Praesto Presto."

The brick glowed dully, with the exception of one spot. This spot was a tiny pinprick of intensely bright light. Starswirl saw it and groaned. "Oh, come on! It's not as if I put any EFFORT into getting those dull humans to cast those spells that I designed especially for them!"

He set the brick down and glared at Twilight. "So you brought him here?"

"N-not on purpose! Like I said, my equipment malfunctioned, I don't know how or why-"

"Of course not," said the greyish unicorn, sighing once more. He turned to Celestia. "I thought I told you that technology was not to be developed among ponies?"

"Well..." Celestia shifted her hooves, looking at the ground. "I guess I didn't see the harm in one or two machines..."

"One or two machines!? That's still technology, my good mare!" He stomped around the room, fuming. "Of all the stupid reasons for the World Barrier to be broken-"

"Excuse me, but did you just say that the Princess was not to allow us ponies to develop machines?" asked Rarity. "If you don't mind my saying this, that seems rather unreasonable. Why, without machines, I would hardly be able to make the number of dresses that I do!"

"Yeah!" said Applejack. "Plowin' the fields would be three times as much work without plows!"

"And I wouldn't have a party cannon!" said Pinkie, with a horrified look on her face.

"Mr. Starswirl, why shouldn't we have technology?" asked Twilight, her face a mask of confusion.

Starswirl looked at all of them, his face dark. "I suppose I'll have to start at the beginning. Celestia seems to trust all of you, so I guess I can as well.

"We begin in a world where chaos rules. Discord ran rampant. Everything ran into everything else, and civilization as it had been known was no more, destroyed by the chaotic god who ruled a world of humans and ponies. Everypony was totally miserable, and life was nigh meaningless.

"The humans had a far better time of it; Discord didn't have the same effect on them as he did on us. Instead of manifesting himself physically, he was an unseen force. The humans, affected by this force, were forced to live in small groups, scavenging a living from their harsh world as best they could without any magical talent or developed civilization. This was their Age of Chaos.

"In Equestria, as you all know, Discord was an actual creature who ruled with an iron, yet not intentionally cruel, fist. The ponies were even more miserable than the humans, as their world's natural laws were turned upside-down at the whims of a mad god.

"Then along came two sisters, whose names were Tia and Luann. They hated Discord, as did everypony else, but they were the first ponies who weren't afraid to stand against him besides myself. So, after they managed to convince me to help them, we all went out and located six gemstones with incredibly powerful Lighte Magyck bound to them, and harnessed their power to transmutate his physical form into stone. It was harder than it sounds, believe me!

"Having been defeated in the realm of Equestria, Discord's grip on Earth was shaken as well. However, just as he maintained a physical form in Equestria, so he maintained an ideological form on Earth. The humans gradually climbed out of the metaphorical hole they were in, but Discord's influence cancelled out their basic Good Nature, and they become simply neutral. This is why there are legends of humans in Equestria that tell both good and bad stories about them; because humans ARE both good and bad."

"Um...excuse me," interrupted Twilight, "but what was that about civilization falling? And are you saying Equestria and Earth are the same world? And do you mean to say that you were born before the Princesses? And what is 'Lighte Magyck'? What does it have to do with the Elements of Harmony? And why weren't you in any of the stories the Princess told me? And-"

"I am afraid," said the old stallion in an impatient tone, "that questions will have to wait for later."

Twilight pouted, but nodded for him to go on. The only thing keeping her from continuing on with her infinite questionnaire, however, was the fact that the story being told was so interesting.

"Now, as I was saying," continued the wizened wizard, "Humans, neutral, blah, blah, blah. Most humans had a love for science, and an innate fear of magic. So, as their humble tribes gave rise to civilization, the number of humans who could use magic slowly decreased, and the number that were inventing machines and furthering science grew. Eventually they began to hunt down anything had any knowledge of or ability to use magic at all, seeking to make science the sole power of Earth. They nearly succeeded.

"Now, Equestria is obviously connected to Earth. This means that the humans hunted down unicorns, pegasi, cockatrices, dragons, and even creatures that just looked magical, like hydras and parasprites. They were even zealous enough to hunt down other humans that knew how to harness magic."

At this, Twilight's face turned from awestruck wonder at all this new information to absolute revulsion. "That's terrible! Why did they hate magic so much?"

Glaring at her, Starswirl answered. "One can only imagine, my dear. I am not sure that they knew themselves. They respected it, certainly; there were plenty of powerful humans who rose to the top of society that could use magic. But eventually they began to be so 'rational' as to be irrational when it came to magic. They hated what they could not explain, and as they believed it could not be explained with any amount of research, they tried to exterminate it instead. Humans are very controlling creatures. If they understand something, they can control it. If they can't control something, they destroy it so that eventually only things that they can control exist.

"Now. Without any more interruptions, I will finish this story. The humans, as I said before, had begun exterminating Equestrians. Equines that talked? That made no sense. They couldn't explain it. So the ones that they couldn't enslave, they slaughtered.

"I, of course, was horrified by this. Celestia was busy dealing with Nightmare Moon, an event which probably spanned a much longer period of time than Celestia lets on, and so I had to deal with this problem alone.

"The first thing you do when you are dealing with a problem alone is make it so that you aren't on your own anymore. I began enlisting humans who were sympathetic to the cause of magic and Equestria, and training them in secret. They posed as monks, because by then the reason for the extermination of magic had changed from science to religion. The underlying root was the same, however; they didn't understand, so they destroyed.

"Eventually, with the help of these humans and a few ponies who I disguised as humans, I managed to devise a spell that could separate the world into two semi-worlds with a Barrier between. Earth, where the humans could live without Magyck; and Equestria, where equines could live with Magyck. Unfortunately, my closest followers were caught and burned at the stake, and only just managed to cast the spell before they died. All of my other followers were transformed into equines prior to the casting of the spell, and thus were sent to Equestria.

"All Magyck was supposed to be sent there as well, but...my Barrier did not work as well on Magyck as it did on physical objects. Several times, Magyck has slipped past it and wreaked havoc on the humans, who have long since stopped believing that magic ever existed.

"Now, we finally get to the reason that the Equestrians cannot have technology. This involves a lot of deep Magic Theory and other highly complicated things that you couldn't possibly understand, so I will try to simplify it for you all. The Barrier is based on the fact that the two worlds were different. Equines in one world, humans in the other. Magic in one, technology in the other. The more similar they became, the more parallel they became, the weaker the Barrier got. So, since I doubted the humans would suddenly revert back to using magic and abandon their precious technology, I instructed Celestia, who was by then ruling on her own, due to her sister's corruption by Darke Magyck, to never allow the Equestrians to become too advanced, lest the barrier shatter and the humans find themselves in the awkward position of being surrounded by a bunch of magical, pastel colored ponies that they insist only exist in their imaginations. Somehow, I doubt they would react in a rational, calm manner."

Starswirl took a moment to imagine the possible chaos that could come of that, then added, "It might even release enough chaos energy to free Discord permanantly."

The room was silent as the group absorbed this information. Even Twilight didn't feel like asking questions at the moment.

The silence was broken by Pinkie Pie, who was eyeing a sandwich lying where it had been sitting when they had first come in. "Hey, where did this come from? I thought you ate that sandwich! Oh well. Looks yummy!" She opened her mouth impossibly wide, preparing to devour it whole. "No, WAIT!" shouted Starswirl. But too late, it seemed. Pinkie came within 20 centimeters of the sandwich, and in a shower of magical wreckage that shoved her backward into the wall, the sandwich disappeared.


End file.
